Regina Spektor: New album, new song, new totally adorable dolphin noises

Regina Spektor |MTV Music

Regina Spektor
Album: Far (Sire)
In stores: Now
Lilith redux? If the ’90s were dominated by solemn singer-songwriters rallying around Sarah McLachlan’s earnest girl power, the ’00s are about those ladies outside the Lilith Fair, the ones too nutty to fit in with Sheryl Crow and Dido. Along with St. Vincent, Nellie McKay and Miranda Lambert, Regina Spektor longs to keep you off balance. One second, she’s singing like a sad robot (Machine); the next, she’s building a disco-baroque boogie around dolphin noises (Folding Chair).
Soviet kitsch: Born in Russia, raised in NYC, Spektor’s music is considered “anti-folk,” melodic and piano-driven, psychedelic and weird. She bends words to fit her melodies — and sometimes simply invents a new language (see Eet). She’s also capable of gut-check beauty, including a poignant look at our religious hypocrisy (Laughing With, above).
Reminds us of: The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party
Download this: Laughing With
Grade: A

'(500) Days of Summer' has the best soundtrack I've heard in a long time

I love soundtracks, always have. Purple Rain, The Graduate, Electric Horseman. In fact just last night, I played both Vision Quest and Butch Cassidy on vinyl for my daughters (and no, they did not run sobbing). Unfortunately, my desk these days is littered with crap 'tracks from, say, Transformers 2, crass marketing ploys featuring loud Nickelbacky sludge that has little to do with the flick. 

That's why the soundtrack for romantic comedy (500) Days of Summer -- which hits theaters July 17 -- is so good, so refreshing. I have no idea if the movie works (although you gotta admit, that trailer is brilliant). But I can say for certain that the accompanying album is a smartly, bittersweetly nuanced mixtape featuring old weepers (Simon & Garfunkel, the Smiths, Hall & Oates) and new jobs (Regina Spektor, Doves, Wolfmother). All the cuts you hear in the trailer are also on the album, available July 14. 

By the way, for fans of our Stuck in the '80s podcast, (500) Days of Summer might as well be called The Steve Spears Story. Proceed with caution, my sobby brethren.